Skype replaces P2P supernodes with Linux boxes hosted by Microsoft

[J-Mac]

Finally! Now you shouldn’t have to worry about hacking your Skype installation to avoid having Skype designate your box as a "supernode". (Like me!) Oops - well not exactly, but calls will no longer be routed through Supernodes; instead supernodes will be used only to allow users to find other Skype users. As stated by Mark Gillett, CVP, Skype Product Engineering & Operations:

As part of our ongoing commitment to continually improve the Skype user experience, we developed supernodes which can be located on dedicated servers within secure datacentres. This has not changed the underlying nature of Skype’s peer-to-peer (P2P) architecture, in which supernodes simply allow users to find one another (calls do not pass through supernodes). We believe this approach has immediate performance, scalability and availability benefits for the hundreds of millions of users that make up the Skype community.

http://arstechnica.com//business/news/2012/05/skype-replaces-p2p-supernodes-with-linux-boxes-hosted-by-microsoft.ars

Microsoft - which acquired Skype last May - apparently made the change about a month ago when the number of users logged onto Skype hit 41 million, which is about 37% above average. 

Anyway this is good news IMO.   

Jim

[Renegade]

 

This kind of seems like the KKK setting up a hotel for the Black Panthers... 

[TaoPhoenix]

This kind of seems like the KKK setting up a hotel for the Black Panthers... 

-Renegade (May 08, 2012, 10:14 AM)

I was thinking of auto workers driving something other than their brand.

[J-Mac]

Well, it's fine with me as my high speed connection always made my box a target to become a supernode. I would change the registry and all the other published tricks to avoid it and of course Skype would find another way to punch a hole in UDP or whatever and christen me a supernode again. I used Gizmo - which always used their own servers - till they were bought bu Google a few years ago. Google sat on it for two years, reducing features continually, and then killed it for good late last year. (They do that a LOT).

So I'm fine with Microsoft/Skype - for now.

Jim

[Renegade]

This kind of seems like the KKK setting up a hotel for the Black Panthers... 

-Renegade (May 08, 2012, 10:14 AM)

I was thinking of auto workers driving something other than their brand.

-TaoPhoenix (May 08, 2012, 01:55 PM)

MS seems to be more akin to the KKK than GM or Ford though.

[SeraphimLabs]

I wondered why Skype went from running so horribly to suddenly running halfway decently again.

Talk about unexpected though. I would have expected Microsoft to simply port the dedicated supernode software to run on Windows and then deploy Windows servers for the purpose.

[Edvard]

Well, that was a bit of a surprise... 

Talk about unexpected though. I would have expected Microsoft to simply port the dedicated supernode software to run on Windows and then deploy Windows servers for the purpose.

-SeraphimLabs (May 08, 2012, 11:45 PM)

You'd think, but then again, maybe the software functioned so well already they decided to not put in the dev time for porting, and instead tweak what was already built.
To go with the car analogy, why build a [car brand A] when you've got a perfectly good [car brand B] in the garage?

Meanwhile, the Linux version of the Skype client is at 2.2 beta.
Windows version: 5.9
Mac version: 5.7

Admittedly, this was going on before Microsoft bought them, and I keep hoping Ballmer lives up to his promises.... not holding my breath.

[Gwen7]

this may have something to do with it.

A new Microsoft patent points towards Skype becoming equipped for lawful interception, which could be important as the service grows up to challenge traditional telcos.

The patent was filed back in 2009, but published* last week and picked up by Computerworld. Titled "Legal Intercept", it covers one way in which a VoIP-based communications system might enable a call to be intercepted and covertly recorded, naming Skype as one of the services to which it could be applied.

link: http://www.theregist.../29/microsoft_skype/

this way microsoft can put a backdoor in skype without acknowledging there may be one in windows too. now microsoft can cooperate with government snoops without admitting they have somehow compromised their own operating system's security. and they can blame linux if it ever blows up or gets hacked.

win-win :-(